Although it has been strongly infiltrated by Hindu thought and custom, Sikhism remains a mono-theistic faith. Idol worship is forbidden and no rivers, mountains, or places are held to be sacred. Yet Sikhism accepts the Hindu theory of the transmigration of the soul, holding, however, that the human form of life is the highest and that it is human actions which determine whether one will attain salvation by the fusion of one’s light with the light of God. For years, she didn’t try it. “I was afraid to film it for a long time,” she recalled . This was a character without a face, or hands, or limbs of any kind. She hadn’t done anything quite like it. While English folk music has been explored and written about on many occasions, our folk dances have had less academic attention. Aside from John Forrest’s The History of Morris Dancing 1458-1750 (2000) and Dr John Cutting’s History and the Morris Dance: A Look at Morris Dancing from Its Earliest Days Until 1850 (2006), there has been little attempt to chart the history and development of morris dancing. And with these works ending their analyses in the mid-18th and -19th Centuries respectively, there is even less written about morris up to the present day.

Recreation for Ingenious Head-peeces (1650); the first depiction to show a dancer holding handkerchiefs David Scott Katsan (2006). The Oxford Encyclopedia of British Literature, Volume 1. Oxford University Press. p.141. ISBN 9780195169218.Five years into retirement I realised that I had still been busy doing other activities. I decided it was now or never, so I started refusing all new invitations to do stuff and divesting myself of most of the other things I’d undertaken to do, so as to concentrate on it. I spent a couple of years chasing new primary sources – both for the early period, where so much more is now available digitally, and following up the later period more comprehensively. Then, four years ago, I began writing in earnest, starting with a thorough revision of the early material I’d begun years before. I then just kept writing until it was finished. As adults, we know this. And so we find ways to overcome this limitation. We write things down, we make lists, we take notes. Maybe some of us still tie knots in our handkerchiefs. We find ways to use the world around us to support our memories. To help us to avoid forgetting. To go beyond the limitations under which we have to work. Learning mnemonics. For example, Richard Of York Gave Battle In Vain – red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo, violet; the colours of the rainbow.

Look up handkerchief in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. A linen handkerchief A lace handkerchief Morris dancers with handkerchiefs in Oxford I was criticized at the Artistic Council in Prague, told that I was ‘still playing with my little feelings’ and that I should prove myself,” Týrlová remembered. “So I went for it.” Under Týrlová and her collaborators, The Knot in the Handkerchief took shape in the late ‘50s — when Týrlová herself was in her late 50s (she was born in 1900).The story of The Knot in the Handkerchief is simple, but it hinges on an idea that needs explaining to modern viewers. At the time, knotting a handkerchief was a way to remember something — like a string around your finger. I’m not saying everyone will look like Boss Morris (I’d struggle, for a start), but new ideas and new choreographies are constantly emerging. People are less constrained by any focus on historical continuity or precedent. In many ways that’s not new – until the focus that took root in the early 20th century on the revival as a revival of things past, performers had always innovated. That’s what led to the development of complex dances in the Cotswold morris, and to the evolution of the different North-West styles around the turn of the 19th century. Practice and repetition. This helps transfer information from short-term memory to long-term memory. More often people were aware of historical changes over their lifetimes. This first emerges in the 16th Century when one text talks of a morris ‘in the ancient manner’, and Will Kemp, in 1600, pinned streamers to his shoulders which he described as ‘the olde fashion’, rather than holding napkins in his hands.

Probably, WTF!? I think that one new element that has emerged in the revival is the idea of morris as a hobby for its own sake. It is of course done for a variety of reasons, and always has been. Another thing that might strike an older dancer is the variety of styles of dancing visible at the same time. Morris dancing was much more regionally focused before the revival, so most people would only know of one style for much of the historical period. I have tried very hard to make this a narrative history which is understandable to, and interesting for, anyone with no previous knowledge of morris dancing. My wife was very helpful in this – as a non-dancer she read through several drafts and pointed out where I needed to explain things better to a lay readership. I have also tried to convey not just what was done, but what people – both practitioners and audience – thought about it, so it is as much a history of the ideas as it is about the practice.Of the immigrants only about one in four has retained the Sikh custom of uncut hair on head and face. It is too difficult to wash and dry, they say. But once away from family influence and pressure many can see little point in obeying an inconvenient regulation drawn up by the last of the ten Gurus, Gobind Singh. So are you optimistic about the future of morris? Do you think it will evolve further into the 21st Century?

When it comes to helping your child to learn, one of the things any parent can do is to help their child understand and then go beyond the limits of their memory. This can be done in many different ways. Here are just some of the strategies you can use with your child: The Knot in the Handkerchief (which you can watch in full above) was a risk for Týrlová. These were arguably her least human characters to date. They’re almost abstract — “magical and mysterious beings” who resemble “figures in colorful cloaks, people with odd physiognomies,” wrote one author . And yet they’re human to the core. We set our cut-off date at 1750, on the presumption that after that morris was much closer to what we see today. I was wrong! Michael Heaney

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It was the last of the Gurus, Gobind Singh, who completed this transformation. He insisted that his followers take the name of Singh (lion) and swear an oath to cut neither hair nor beard, to wear a steel bangle on the right wrist and a comb in their hair, to carry a sabre, and to wear short trousers. Gobind Singh had a purpose in making these demands. He wanted to raise the status of his followers and to emphasise that among them there were no castes; he wanted them to be easily distinguishable so they would have no chance to deny their faith; he wanted them to be fit and ready to fight. It began in Oxford in 1976 – quite late; I was already nearly 30. I had seen Oxford City Morris at the annual fair in Oxford a few times, and driving through Bampton one Bank Holiday I happened to see Gloucestershire Old Spot dancing and thought they looked impressive and so sought out Oxford City and joined them. I love anecdotes like this. I think they show that these dances were not performed for the sake of ‘tradition’ or set in stone, but because people enjoyed dancing them and would adapt them to suit the situation.